The Decepticon jets are some of the most iconic characters in Transformers. Often available in multiple flavors, they represent the backbone of the bad guy brute squad. When Takara announced their Masterpiece Starscream, I was hesitated on snagging one and even missed the US release. One great thing about these guys is that they are repaint fodder. So hot on the heels of Masterpiece Megatron came Skywarp. Out of all three Masterpiece jets, Skywarp is the one with a great presense. This Jetron is back in black.

Right out of the box, Skywarp is a fantastic piece. He is packaged in jet mode with his twin whatever guns attached. Skywarp measures about a foot and a half long. He is molded in glossy black plastic and it detailed with numerous small white markings ranging from Decepticon Air Force roundels to tiny "No Step" signs. In this mode Skywarp rests atop three landing wheels. The nosewheel is properly depicted, while the main wheels have been moved from the center of the jet towards the rear. This is my only issue with jet mode since it makes Skywarp look a little squashed on the table.

From the rear, Skywarp has that classic F-15 aesthetic. Here you can see his jet nozzles are mounted on balljoints and the wing flaps are hinged.

Moving on the paperwork; Skywarp comes with a manual, a collectible card, and a decal sheet. The decals are interesting because they contain the purple stripes and Decepticon symbols which make the toy more like the Generation 1 design. Also included are tiny squadron markings such as "Kremzeek Attack" and "Decepticon Air Force." One of the decals is a name tag for the stand.

Included with Skywarp is a display stand adorned with a purple plated Decepticon symbol and some mechanical detail. The two holes are for storing the guns or the optional Sidewinder missiles. It has two slots for attaching the display arm. One slot is for robot mode while the other is for jet mode.

On the back of the stand you can store the display arm and the tiny Megatron gun mounting clip. This gun is the one that is included with the Masterpiece Optimus Prime toy. I honestly don't known why they didn't just include the gun with the jets, since they included a couple of other less interesting accessories.

Here is one of those less interesting accessories. This tiny Dr. Arkeville looks like it was made out of whatever scraps they had left. He fits loosely in the cockpit.

While on the stand, Skywarp is made to emulate a gate guard or desktop model. Skywarp fits pretty snugly on the stand and will not fall off accidentally.

Here is a video review of jet mode.

Transformation video.

In robot mode, Skywarp's most salient feature is his huge wings. He is fairly stable when just standing up, but the weight of his wings and tail binders. He's really not made for dynamic posing, but I find the toy is more playable than most give it credit for.

Skywarp is not terribly exciting from the back. Neither is the "Stabilizer mode" where you flip up all the possible panels. I'm not even sure why they bothered to mention this in the instructions, but whatever pads the manual I guess.

Skywarps arms are fairly flexible. His shoulders rotate 360 degrees, his elbows bend up to a natural position, and his arms can rotate at the bicep.

Skywarp also feature swiveling wrists and articulated fingers.

Underneath the chest panels are a bank of non-firing missiles. These were only used by Starscream in one episode. However, the engineers at Takara thought they were cool enough to include. The missiles are a little hard to see on Skywarp since they are not painted.

His head is mounted on a ball joint. Skywarp also features two different expressions. Simply flip the head up, pull the silver face portion down, and twist it around to reveal the second face. Although once you see his expression, you may wonder why anyone would want to do this.

Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngh!

Skywarp can be mounted on the stand in robot mode as well. Doing so will allow you to get a little more play out of his lower legs. His legs feature articulated hips, swiveling thighs, and double jointed knees.

While this is not in the manual, I found that by using the stand's jet mode configuration Skywarp can achieve a decent flying pose. He's a bit more unstable like this so expect at least one face plant.

Robot mode video.

With all the controversy (read: fan whining) over Masterpiece Starscream, I find that Skywarp is really the first smash hit for this design. He's really a solid, playable toy that looks great. Since Skywarp is a more forgettable character, prices for this toy are beginning to drop so look out for a good deal and pick one up.

You took leave from DAP-DX to review robots? I hope your departure from the podcast is only temporary. I hope I'm not part of the reason...

I'm suprisingly and pleasantly pleased that you did this review of Skywarp.

You've set the record straight about this masterpiece seeker that NekroDave failed to do. You did Kawarmori justice.... You did TF justice... You did Diaclone justice... which is what I can LEAST say about......PFFT...I dare not say his/her/whatever's name!!!

You're the greatest host ever right next to Jermey and I mean BOTH of you...I respect you a lot so please don't leave us.

Excellent first review! Good detailed writing without long paragraphs (one of my faults), good pictures that show highlights, and clean video shooting.

Some suggestions:

Like most of the reviewers here, I prefer to shoot as little of myself in front of the camera as possible. The focus is on the [item] being reviewed (and not my fat ass), so consider shooting so that you are reaching around the camera or standing to one side rather than looming over the [item].

Treat your [item] with respect on-camera! While I LMAO when you pitched-aside the figure and the missiles, that encourages other to do the same, and they may tend to mistreat the accessory-or-whatever without thinking and judging for themselves how durable it is. Do whatever you want when not shooting, but it's important on CDX to show that we treat our collections with respect (even if we may dislike what we're covering off-the-record).

One of the things that absolutely puts me to sleep when watching a review is to listen to the reviewer say to move this panel and then this flips open and then you have to move this piece so that it makes room for the arm to swing out and then you have to flip the fist out and then you have to flip this armored section up and then lock it in place won this tab... and not actually see it happening!
When I shoot, if I want to highlight a particular step or feature, I move the item closer to the camera (another reason to stand behind it), point it out, and then show what is going on- not tell what is going to happen, do it, and then explain what happened; just show it and talk about it as you do it. A video review should have less talking and more showing!

This is one of the biggest reasons why I don't cover smaller transformable sets in video- you see more of my hands than you do the tiny figure or what is happening! And, IMO, that's a no-no!

As was the case with Skywarp here, he is mostly black, so some details are hard to see (yet another reason to have it closer to the camera). SO make sure that there is adequate light focusing on the item when you shoot both photographs and video. While your light (the window to your right in the video) was sufficient, it came at the figure one-sided, and created a lot of shadow. (Example "A": when you opened the engine panels and said you could see stuff in there, I couldn't see anything because it wasn't lit properly!) try to have light coming from behind the camera rather than prominently from the side or in front of it. It is the camera that needs to see the item, not you as you cover it.

I'm sure someone else here could illustrate how to set-up a shooting studio -or-whatever- like Josh or Atom- because they use a light tent with special spotlights.

Spend your time in the video to illustrate things that may be too complex to describe in-text or with still photos. While it's fun to do a full review in-video, I find that using it to highlight stuff that takes a while to write out/read can help keep a person's interest for longer rather than repeat everything in both the text and video.

Something that was suggested to me early on when I started shooting videos is to shot multiple takes rather than do it all in one long swathe. This way, if you make one little mistake, you don't have to re-shoot the whole damned thing from scratch. You can also act like a human between takes (burp, fart, etc.) and no one will be the wiser. With multiple smaller takes, you can also edit out moving your camera/lighting around where need-be without boring the viewer as you move things about.

If you get caught-up on a certain feature or transformation step, a pause to zoom in can show us why there is that hang-up, and then go back to the regular view & continue on.

Oh, BTW... are you in any way related to thee Andrew of DAPDX fame?
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CollectionDX Staff

First being me, but I suppose there is a lot more people who know this little trick :)And believe, from my experience his quite stable in this pose, my Starscream was attached to the stand like that for several days and nothing happened.

That's point one, point two is that Takara originally created realsitic-alt-mode oriented Starscream and only later adapted Hasbro's idea with G1 colors, with which fans coped a lot better.

Sigh, the problem with this mold is that while Starscream had enough screen time to develop several special weapons and accesiories, they don't apply all that well to Skywarp and Thundercracker, who simply never had a chance of using them in the show.

"Sigh, the problem with this mold is that while Starscream had enough screen time to develop several special weapons and accesiories, they don't apply all that well to Skywarp and Thundercracker, who simply never had a chance of using them in the show."

That's not totally true. Skywarp used his teleportation powers and his bouncer bombs & Thundercracker used his sonic booms but not a whole lot unless you read the comics and other shows that came afterwards. Granted, their characters weren't fully developed in their original forms as much as Starscream was in the show, but they did later on.

Keep in mind that both their characters get developed in season 3 after Unicron regenerated them into Cyclonus and Scourge respectively. Which is why I'm glad that the Second Megatron aka Galvatron finally killed Starscream in The Movie.

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I know I know, the technical word is 'Reformatting' over 'Regeneration'. Well...I can't help that because I get amazed and excited when I see Transformers get reconstructed into new robots. The same thing happens with Time Lords from the Dr. Who mythos, so I like to use the 'Regeneration' term for TF because it sounds so cool. As far as the TF mythos is concerned, Megatron has the best regeneration scenes ever.

Anyway, maybe I missed it, but where's the diecast part goes? Is it only in joints?"

No, it's not you. Don't let it bother you.

Anyway, most of the diecast content on this toy is the piston strut attached to the air brake flap on the back of the toy. The bar hinge that's attached to the long back panel that's connected to the air brake flap is diecast.

the rest of the diecast goes on the back frame that symmetrically supports the torso,the neck bar attached to the nosecone, the landing gears & a hidden radar in the nosecone.

MP-1 Truck mode is great and I would considered it to be the top 2 behind the classic. However, when you factor in the size, and metal content and everything else. It would be the number 1 Optimus Prime, period.

I don't think MP-1 standard was set too high, it was set perfectly in matching with teh masterpiece title. These planes have no excuse for not including some heavy metal die-cast content. Who wants plastic in MP line?

"These planes have no excuse for not including some heavy metal die-cast content. Who wants plastic in MP line?"

Who wants plastic in the MP line? Sounds like somebody hasn't been keeping up with the current demographics in sales lately. If Yamato Toys can get away selling their Macross with a little diecast, why can't TakaraTomy?

Remember, it's not just the chogokin that sells the most, it's the quality of asthetics & engineering that makes the biggest buck.

Just to add to Rodimus78's point, I don't believe diecast is necessary in many designs. Given the current MP jet design there aren't many places you could stick diecast without compromising the toy's already strained balance. There's no room in the legs for it due to the collapsing thighs, the arms and chest pieces wouldn't really benefit from diecast, and diecast wings and tail surfaces would seriously through off its balance. Just look at my review of the GFFM Zeta Plus. The diecast in the legs is nice but it comes with the cost of the toy being unable to sit in wave rider mode without some kind of stand support.